Motorsport on Monday: 28/07/14
Safety cars were very much the flavour of the weekend...
Following Marcus Ericsson and Sergio Perez's respective smashes into firm, immovable objects, a certain Mr Maylander had to fire up the M159 motor in his SLS AMG and calm the chaos down - although his job was prolonged by a spinning Romain Grosjean under yellows.
If a crash in motorsport can ever be routine, Ericsson's mistake in his Caterham and even Perez's lapse of concentration in the Sauber were exactly that: spin, crunch, the fluttering of carbonfibre punctuated by expletives, walk away. It proves just how safe the carbon cocoons in F1 are today.
But it's easy to assume the same is true for all forms of motorsport. However, as was shown in Spa, that's not the case.
Get well soon, Mahy
Not long before quarter distance, the race was red flagged after a massive shunt involving the #111 Kessel Racing run Ferrari 458 Italia of British driver Marcus Mahy and the #333 Rinaldi 458 of Vadim Kogay. The cars collided at Stavelot - not where you want to be banging doors - totalling the Kessel car and setting Kogay's Ferrari ablaze.
The incident was that serious the red flag was waved to allow the medevac helicopter to land on the track to transport Mahy straight to hospital where he was put in an induced coma. Thankfully the 53 year-old is now conscious and can move all his limbs, but will still have to undergo surgery.
Mahy's accident - along with another massive shunt for yet another Ferrari 458, this time at Eau Rouge, and a gaggle of other incidents that triggered four safety car periods with other drivers taken to hospital - proves that not all forms of motorsport are equal when it comes to safety.
It's too easy to get blasé with safety when you watch Lewis Hamilton's brakes failing or Kevin Magnussen shunting the tyres so hard he needed a new chassis, with both walking away from their respective accidents.
We know motorsport can be dangerous, but it still doesn't make it any easier when things go awry. Sometimes these reminders are good when nobody gets hurt and serve to highlight the point of driving standards. That's the "pssst" of another can of worms I can hear being opened. For now, Marcus, we hope you get well soon.
Congratulations to Rast, Vanthoor and Winkelhock in their Audi R8 LMS Ultra, who took the win in a difficult, disjointed race.
Hamilton - luck - team orders
I focused the spotlight on Lewis Hamilton this time last week after what must be one of the best drives of his life cemented, in my opinion, his status as the most determined driver on the grid. It didn't take long for him to supersede that performance. Hamilton has now made up 50 places in the last four races.
But again, it was summoned because of bad luck on Friday. In Germany his brakes failed, in Hungary it was a high-pressure fuel line that caught fire, torching the back end of the W05 Hybrid requiring a new chassis and a new motor.
With no time on the board, this meant Lewis started from pit lane with Rosberg on pole. In dodgy conditions. Obviously that wasn't enough of a challenge for him, as he spun at turn two on lap one, ever so slightly damaging his front wing. Charging through the field with a broken wing end fence and cascade winglets - sounds familiar, right?
To cut a long story short, he made his way through to the front by just half distance, dropping back to third and one place ahead of his teammate after the pit stops had shaken the field out. Which is where the next drama came from.
At the start of the season Mercedes was quite open and honest about letting its two title hopefuls race. However, in Hungary team "suggestion" turned into blatant team orders as it issued a directive for Hamilton to let Rosberg past.
The two were on different strategies, but Hamilton disobeyed and kept the German behind him. Lewis sounded incredulous over the radio that he was being asked to move aside for a car that didn't look like he was able to overtake and issued a fair ultimatum: if he gets close enough to me I'll let him through, otherwise I'll fight for my position. "Why isn't he letting me through?" Rosberg whinged.
In my opinion, looking at how the pair finished, Hamilton was totally justified in his decision. If he'd let Rosberg through the championship gap would have opened to 17 points rather than closed to 11. Ask any racer, any real racer... - OK, we won't go there.
Coming back to last week's discussion, it must be difficult for Lewis to seen a tiny glimpse as to where the team's loyalties lie - or where it must feel like they lie to him.
While Mercedes' chief press officer - sorry "non-executive chairman" - Niki Lauda says Lewis was right to ignore the panicked call from the Mercedes pit wall, the fact remains he was asked to let his title rival by.
Toto Wolff can review the decision all he wants, but I fear the damage has been done already inside Lewis's head.
Still, a great race from Hamilton and another cracking victory for the perma-smiling Daniel Ricciardo - Spa should be good...
::Linky::
At least he went out doing what he loved.
I heard this morning too through a friend...very sad news. Thought of him straight away when I read the article.
Talking of Lotus drivers, is there any news about the driver from Saturday afternoon's F1 Masters race?
You can easily see how the situation would rile Hamilton up. The German team asking the English driver to move over so their German driver can gain a position and clear the title gap a bit more when it really isn't required. It does smell of bullst. I'd be pissed off too.
RIP Denis Welch.
Fail on Monday, for me I'm afraid.
On another note, I remember seeing a video of that Vadim Kogay bloke driving a 458 at Monza. He was fecking awful and had the commentators genuinely laughing at him, I recall they also made a comment that he was dangerous and would eventually cause an accident.
Now, I haven't seen the Mahy/Kogay crash but it seems like those commentators may have had a point.....
Lewis could have finished second with 2x15 lap sprints on Supersofts from Lap 40 onwards. But it would have been higher risk than the path he chose. But he could always have had Nico covered by running the same strategy, as he pulled away after Nico stopped on about lap 35, even though Nico had new tyres.
In all, Nico's proved to me he's not as good as Lewis this weekend. But he's in front for now, but will need to be less conservative later in the season if he wants to win it (Hamilton car failures notwithstanding).
Jez
PS As mentioned above, none of this matters when you hear the news of Denis Welch. RIP
The Race Of My Life
I heard this morning too through a friend...very sad news. Thought of him straight away when I read the article.
Talking of Lotus drivers, is there any news about the driver from Saturday afternoon's F1 Masters race?
Given the state of the car and the way the accident was described, we were all a tad concerned...
The accident which befell Denis Welch is terribly saddening. Historic racing has had a very bad run lately and lost several exponents over the last two seasons. No knee-jerk reactions, please, but perhaps a good, honest view of driving standards and safety required? Nobody should have to die enjoying their hobby, no matter what it is.
I love F1 but the Mercedes team orders issue is a trivial matter when compared to the death of somebody like Denis Welch.
"This was for me the outstanding drive," the Austrian enthused. "Not only [did Hamilton start from the] pitlane, he had a brand new car which had to be put together.
"He'd never driven this car, which is a handicap, and then he had to start in the wet so what Lewis did today with this unknown car not absolutely balanced, to go all the way through and finish third was incredible."
Enough said... Although that overtake he pulled out round the outside on turn four, now that deserves a mention... ouuush
Sad news about Denis Welch RIP.
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